A campaign that started with lot of promise ended in disappointment as the India crashed out of Rio Olympics men’s hockey competition, losing 1-3 to Belgium in the quarterfinals on Sunday. The Argentines will play defending champion Germany, which came from 2-0 down to defeat New Zealand 3-2 in the last five minutes while the Netherlands will face Belgium in the other last four match tomorrow.
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But in the Games so far, Belgium are in red-hot form, having stunned gold-medal contender and world champion Australia in the pool stages.
With this loss, India remained in the sixth spot, while the United States, Britain, Australia and Argentina made it to the quarter-finals.
In the first quarterfinals on Sunday, Spain will play Argentina, which finished third ahead of India in the group.
And they were favourites to win over India, who qualified for the Summer Games after a gap of 36 years.
Martina Cavallero (16th minute, 29th), Maria Granatto (23rd), Carla Rebecchi (26th) and Agustina Albertarrio (27th) scored for Argentina, while India drew a blank to slump to their fourth successive loss in the Rio Games at the Olympic hockey centre here. They did well in the early part of the tournament – which was not unexpected – but then showed their first signs of weakness with an inability to finish their pool with a win over 15th-ranked Canada.
A goal-less first half – during which India’s defensive line was exceptional – was followed by goals conceded in the 32nd and 54th minutes, leading up to a frenetic last few seconds during which India missed five penalty corner chances to draw level with the Dutch.
It was a game that saw Belgium pressed higher from the push-back, pappering Indian goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh, who even though delivered a stunning show but it was not enough.
Later, Tom Boon scored another goal to seal the victory. But, Sindhu fought back like a champion and closed it 19-21, 21-15, 21-17 to reach pre-quarter finals.
“We need to keep in our head to keep playing hockey and not be chickens”, Netherlands midfielder Lidewij Welten said. “I have to look into my players, why they didn’t perform in the way that we had planned”, he said. Going by statistics, Belgium has won four matches in their pool and have lost only one. “I only want people to pray for us”, he added. You can watch the India vs Canada hockey match here.
These couple of quaters were frustrating for India, who nearly camped inside the Canadian half for the better part of the 30 minutes.
Germany barely avoided a draw, but go into the quarterfinals with four straight wins after opening with a draw against Argentina.
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“He is getting better”.
